Thanks @
Hawes7701. We're back home now but had a really fantastic time. And, with that in mind...
Krabi/Koh Lanta
After a bit of a wait in Krabi airport for our shuttle to Koh Lanta to depart, we started making our way south to the island. This, perhaps unsurprisingly, involved a vehicle ferry. What was surprising was that the ferry in question was sea-worthy as, having travelled on it, I can't say I'm too sure that it was! Regardless, we arrived at our resort on Koh Lanta and spent a fantastic 5 days there over Christmas eating lots of Thai food (ok, and a club sandwich) and, other than taking a hair-raising scooter trip down to the southern-most tip of the island, did very very little indeed.
Flight 6: FD3211 (AirAsia) KBV-DMK
Aircraft: HS-ABO (Airbus A320-216)
Seats: 21F/21E (economy!)
Avios/tier points: not a sausage
After a lovely final breakfast on sunny Koh Lanta we got back on the shuttle bus and, surviving the rickety old ferry once more, were back on the mainland and at Krabi airport where a slightly odd system presented itself. Krabi airport has 2 terminals - 1 domestic, 1 international - and, although our first flight was only to Bangkok, our connecting flight would take us (hopefully!) out of Thailand and into Vietnam. We checked in at the domestic terminal, where our visa status etc for Vietnam was checked and where we were relieved of our bags. We were told, however, that we needed to proceed through security and emigration at the international terminal, so we would technically be leaving Thailand right there in Krabi, even though our flight would be to Thailand. We were given little stickers to wear so that ground staff at Bangkok knew we were transferring to another flight. A little embarrassing!
We dutifully did as we were told and waited in the internal terminal where, confusingly, they didn’t seem to use boarding screens at all. Luckily, around the time our flight was due to board we saw a queue and decided to join it, which turned out to be the one for our flight. How one was supposed to know that, I have no idea. We then were directed downstairs to a bus which took us back to terminal 2, where our plane was situated, to join us with the non-connecting passengers who has boarded in the domestic terminal!
On arrival in Bangkok we were herded into a little group of other badge-wearing transfer passengers by a slightly harassed-looking AirAsia staff member. After some time she shouted “follow me please” and we headed up some stairs to the most overheated, chaotic and packed terminal I have ever seen and we had over 2 hours to kill before our next flight (uuugh!)
After persevering with this for what felt like days we finally began boarding our next flight to Hanoi. We were not too sad to be leaving Don Meung behind, truth be told, and were excited to soon be entering another new country. We were less excited, however, about the prospect of our second Penang chicken curry and Thai omelette of the day and our third of the trip. Oh well!
Flight 7: FD644 (AirAsia) DMK-HAN
Aircraft: ?? (Airbus A320-216)
Seats: 22A/22B (economy!)
Avios/tier points: nope
